Menu

Adsense

Search This Blog

cj

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Can you open this unopenable lock?

It takes three keys and four turns of them to open this unusual lock in Mandawa, Rajasthan. But why are there no keyholes,

India abounds in places of historical interest and it is my passion
to look into the past, to uncover places that have made history. And
though it may not be possible to travel to those times, folklore comes
in handy in my quest.

My passion led me to Mandawa, an old town in
the Churu district of Rajasthan. This place boasts of having given
India the great industrialist family, the Goenkas. Every street
showcases century-old havelis proudly displaying frescoes, which are preserved as if they had been made only yesterday.

At
the majestic and beautiful Sneh Ram Lada Haveli, I wandered into the
antique shop in the basement. And here I saw an unusual lock, the most
complicated one I have ever seen.

There, it's open! How did that work?
I held it in my hand for a while. Though it was made of iron, it was
rust-free and solid, weighing at least a kilogram. I wondered how it
could be opened. Confused, looking for holes where I could insert its
three keys, I gave up. I couldn’t find a single one.

The owner of the shop said, "I will open it for you. Just observe."

First,
he put the back-holder of one of the keys around the rocket-shaped
pointer at the base of the lock and twisted it. The pointer was
dislodged. That was our first keyhole. Inserting the first key, he
turned it clockwise. Doing so raised the lock’s face a bit, revealing
the second keyhole. He inserted a second key and turned it. A third
keyhole was revealed as the lock’s face rose slightly as it did before.
The shopkeeper then inserted the third key into the now-visible keyhole
and opened the lock.

So lost was I watching this fascinating spectacle that I forgot to make a video of it!